Today’s service will be offered in 2 formats – video and text.
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• Walton’s Harvest Table – Thank you for all the contributions to our harvest table this morning. The fresh produce will be taken to Fare Share later today.
• Coat drive deadline is October 14th – The Bronte Coat drive urgently needs your donations of gently-used warm coats, snowsuits, and winter boots. All sizes for all ages are gratefully accepted. Knitted scarves are also very much appreciated.
• Walton’s UCW will meet on Thursday, October 13th at 1:30 p.m. in Bronte Hall. As 2022 is the 60th Anniversary of The United Church Women, we will briefly hear about some of the organization’s background and history. Tea, coffee and cookies will be served and plans for a modified Cookie Walk will be made. All Walton women are warmly welcomed. Please contact Anne, Rachel or the church office at 905-827-1643 if you require a ride.
• Halloween family masquerade party – For the first time since 2019, we are excited to hold Walton’s annual family masquerade party. Dress up in your favourite costume and join us on Saturday, October 29 from 4:30 – 7:00 pm for a pizza dinner, halloween scavenger hunt, spooky crafts, silly games, pumpkin carving and more. Everyone is welcome!
• Lest we forget For the Remembrance Day service Nov 6, we are looking for memorabilia to decorate the sanctuary. Please bring items to the church before Nov. 4th so they can be displayed.
• Drives to church Do you know someone who needs a drive to church? We have some drivers available and will try to accommodate them. Please contact the church office for more information.
• It’s not too late to sign up for “Everybody Always” Tuesday Night Fall Video Study. Rev. Jim is offering this study from 7:15-8:45 pm on Tuesdays, to Nov. 1st, in Bronte Hall. It is by Bob Goff, New York Times bestselling author of, “Becoming love in a world full of setbacks and difficult people.” No preparation is required and there is no cost. Masks are required. Please let Rev. Jim know you are attending by emailing jamescgillwuc@gmail.com or by calling the office at 905-827-1643.
• Do you have surplus paper? If your company is discarding any good quality blank photocopy paper (any colour), the church office can make good use of it. We can always use 8 1/2 x 11 or 81/2 x 14 sizes. If you have access to any spare paper, please contact the church office. Thank you!
• Children and youth are invited to view this week’s virtual Sunday School lesson online. This week Sunday School is all about giving thanks!
• Walton’s prayer chain is open. Confidential prayers requests can be sent to office@waltonmemorial.com
• If you need Rev. Jim for a pastoral emergency, please email him at jamescgillwuc@gmail.com.
As we gather today on these treaty lands, we are in solidarity with Indigenous brothers and sisters to honour and respect the four directions, lands, waters, plants, animals and ancestors that walked before us, and all of the wonderful elements of creation that exist. We acknowledge and thank the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation for being stewards of this traditional territory.
Happy Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving is such a special time of year. Wow, look at this beautiful harvest table. Thank you so much for your generosity and for thinking of others; this bountiful harvest we have here will be delivered to the Foodbank later today.
Thanksgiving is a time of great celebration, a time of precious moments shared with family and friends and most of all, a time to praise and thank the living God for his goodness and gracious blessings.
What a gorgeous day to celebrate the many gifts and blessings we receive not only today but every day.
Today, we are also grateful for Wendy and Craig Silva, as we celebrate their 10th anniversary as Senior Youth Co-ordinators at Walton. What a blessing they have been for us as a staff, a congregation, and especially for the many Walton teens and Bronte teens who have grown up through their high school years coming to Friday Night Youth Group and attending Teen Talk on Sunday mornings for the past 10 years. We have been richly blessed by their dedication and love for our teens.
One: Our lives are a blessing
All:and so we give thanks.
One:Our loved ones are a blessing
All:and so we give thanks.
One:The earth is a blessing
All:and so we give thanks.
One:Each meal we enjoy, every time we share, is a blessing.
All:and so we give thanks.
One:In thanksgiving, let us worship God.
(Carol O-Neil, The Gathering Pentecost 2, 2019)
All: Praise to you, our God! We gather in awe and thanksgiving. Our vineyards are overflowing; our gardens reap plenty! The lakes shimmer, reflecting the beauty of sunshine and clouds. Wildlife dots the hillsides. The meadows clothe themselves with flocks; the valleys deck themselves with grain; they shout and sing for joy.
We praise you for all creation.
We know you as Creator and Life-giver.
We shout alleluia! Thank you!
Amen.
(Laura J. Turnbull, The Gathering Pentecost 2, 2022)
All: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.
Thank you to Wendy and Craig Silva as we celebrate their 10th anniversary of being Senior Youth Co-ordinators at Walton. What a blessing that has been!
Congratulations Wendy & Craig!
Praise the Lord!
I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart, in the company of the upright, in the congregation.
Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who delight in them.
Full of honor and majesty is his work, and his righteousness endures forever.
He has gained renown by his wonderful deeds; the Lord is gracious and merciful.
He provides food for those who fear him; he is ever mindful of his covenant.
He has shown his people the power of his works, in giving them the heritage of the nations.
The works of his hands are faithful and just; all his precepts are trustworthy.
They are established forever and ever, to be performed with faithfulness and uprightness.
He sent redemption to his people; he has commanded his covenant forever.
Holy and awesome is his name.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it[a] have a good understanding.
His praise endures forever.
Ever heard the expression, “first world problems?” People say it when they realize the problems they are facing most of the rest of the world would love to be facing. Merriam- Webster says, “a usually minor or trivial problem or annoyance experienced by people in relatively affluent or privileged circumstances, especially as contrasted with problems of greater social significance facing people in poor and underdeveloped parts of the world.”
For example, you could not get the exact colour shade you wanted in the new SUV you ordered. You could not get field-level seats for the Jays playoff run against Seattle. Or last week, we had to drive a different route to get to church due to the Oakville Half Marathon.
The title of my message today is, “Gratitude helps us see what is there, instead of what is not there.”
For many people, these last two and half years have taught us exactly that. We could not take that overseas trip we planned, but for maybe the first time we really, really appreciated how blessed we were to have a backyard, or balcony, or that park just a short walk away.
In today’s Psalm reading we hear these words, “Great are the works of the LORD; they are pondered by all who delight in them. Glorious and majestic are his deeds, and his righteousness endures forever.” Those outdoor escapes during the lockdown sure gave us an appreciation of God’s creation which are truly, “Glorious and majestic.” Those of you here in the sanctuary, after the service on your way home, go out the main tower door. Stop safely at the top of the stairs, holding the handrail tightly. Then look out and about. How many churches can say that they look out over a lovely harbour? Then beyond that to a sandy beach and further in the view a shimmering Great Lake. Truly, “glamorous and majestic.”
Today is the last of the five treasured long weekends during the warm times of year here in the Northern Hemisphere. In some ways it marks the end of the patio days for us in southern Ontario. We look back over the time since May 24th and give thanks for the gardening, lake visits, walks after supper and camping, just to name a few. But don’t you feel Thanksgiving should be more than just the second Monday in October? It should be the operating system for daily life and living. Thanksgiving for the followers of Jesus is more than this last long weekend of 2022.
One writer said, “It is not whether the glass is half full or half empty; it is that you have a glass at all.” Ever tried to drink using your hands as a cup? It can make quite the mess over the front of your shirt. A cup, no matter how humble, allows us to enjoy the drink no matter how full or empty the cup may be. The Psalmist says again in Psalm 111, “the LORD is gracious and compassionate. He provides food.”
We are blessed. Thank God!!!
Yes, our grocery prices have risen dramatically. Yes, we have to be more careful in what we purchase and even more careful in what we may waste. Yes, we need to support the local food banks and those with food insecurity. But the good news is, there is food in every grocery store I have been in lately from Food Basics to Farm Boy. I think of those flooded out recently in places such as Puerto Rico, Pakistan, Florida and parts of the Maritimes and how much food they might have.
Nancy de Claisse-Walford says, “Psalm 111 is classified as an Individual Hymn of Thanksgiving, a psalm type in which the singer gives thanks for God’s goodness in delivering them from various life-threatening situations such as illness, oppression, or enemy attack.”
What if you were to write your own version of Psalm 111? How would you write? As the Psalmist did, “Great are the works of the LORD; they are pondered by all who delight in them. Glorious and majestic are his deeds, and his righteousness endures forever.”
It is a Thanksgiving challenge maybe to all of us to express Psalm 111 in our individual thanksgivings. This was all what I was processing in my thoughts when I was sitting in the barber’s chair having my hair cut. Do you ever do that – reflect in their chair? My hairdresser was telling me about how so many people who sit in his chair complain about the weather on every visit. Maybe it is the Canadian thing to do. They say it is too wet, or too dry, too hot or too cold, too windy or too still. Of course, none of us has any control of the weather. We only control our reaction to the weather.
My barber said, “Jim, think about it; we have a great climate here in the Golden Horseshoe overall. We have neither flood nor drought. We can grow so much food in this climate in really good soil. We have an ever-changing landscape with the real colour coming now to its height. We really are not in Tornado Alley, nor do we get Category 3 hurricanes.” As he trimmed away my hair he extolled the virtues of our local weather. What radical Thanksgiving thoughts, some might say!
My individual Psalm 111, if I wrote one, would say how Canada – with only 48 % of the world’s population – has 20% of the world’s fresh water. We have more lake area than anywhere in the world. We have 9% of the world’s forests, 5% of arable land and 11% of the world’s oil reserves. We truly live in a land that is, as the Bible says in Exodus, “running with milk and honey.”
April Yamasaki writes about Psalm 111, “I love the way the psalmist gives thanks with ALL of his heart. This is no weak mumble of thanks out of habit or duty, but a whole-hearted, shout-out-loud whoop of thanks that sets the tone for the entire psalm. It’s as if the psalmist’s heart is so full of thanks that he can’t contain it, that it wells up from his inner being and releases a flood of words that turns into this psalm.”
April you are right! With ALL of his heart. Not a thanks but a THANKS! Last year at Thanksgiving none of us were here in this place. The year before that, none of us were here either. This holy space was empty.
Today this place is full of people and thanksgiving decorations. Thank you, God! Remember on this weekend, as you eat turkey or pumpkin pie, dressing or cranberries, butternut squash or apple crisp, that, “Gratitude helps us see what is there, instead of what is not there.” Thanksgiving blessings to you and your families.
Holy God:
We have no words to express the gratitude we feel for all you have done. You have given yourself to us in Jesus. You have given us your life. You have loved us long before we were aware of you. You have been gracious to us in our failings and never held our sins against us.
You have poured out the blessings of life upon us. You have given us food to eat, clothes to wear, friends and family who love us, homes in which to live, cars to drive, and so many other things we so often take for granted or are tempted to think we have gotten for ourselves through our own diligence.
You have given us so much more—you have given us the privilege to live in a free and peaceful land where we can worship according to the dictates of our own conscience. You have given us health. You have given us a sound mind. You have filled us with joy.
You have also filled our lives with purpose and meaning by making us agents of redemption and ministers of your Word. You have given us an open heaven and the ability to speak to you in prayer any time. You have given us your spirit, your wisdom, your guidance.
Our hearts overflow with all the good things you have given us, all the ways you have shown your love and shown us that we are deeply loved.
We ask you to make us truly thankful. To always take time to say what it has meant to us that you have shown your goodness to us. You have made us beloved children and treated us like no earthly parent ever could. And so, we thank you. We are eternally grateful to you.
Amen.
(Nathan Attwood, Pastor of Marianna First United Methodist Church, Marianna, FL.)
God has given us everything we need: this earth to live upon and the food we need. As if that were not enough, God has also given us the Holy Spirit, and all of the spiritual gifts we need. In a spirit of gratitude and humility, let us offer our gifts back to God.
We thank you for your offerings, however they are made: in the offering plates at the entrances and exits to the church, sent to the office during the week, or given through PAR or online.
The ushers will now bring forward our offering.
(Wanda Winfield, The Gathering, Pentecost 2, 2021)
♥ by secure online payment from your debit or credit card. Click here to go to our donation page to make a single or recurring donation. Multiple funds can be included in one donation by using the “Add Donation” button
♥ by cheque through the mail slot at the Church office entrance or by Canada Post
♥ by monthly PAR payments. To sign up contact stuart@waltonmemorial.com
All: For what we receive, make us truly thankful, O God.
For what we are about to give, make us thankful, too.
Grateful for all that we are and for all that we might become, we commit to living thankful, thanks-filled lives, God of all!
Amen.
(Richard Bott, The Gathering, Pentecost 2, 2021)
Go into the world ready to live with gratitude and generosity. Go into the world knowing that God’s intention is abundance for all. Go into the world and share this life-giving abundance with all you meet.
Today and every day. Amen.
May the Lord of all creation shower his blessings and favour upon you.
All: Amen
May the Lord of the harvest grace your Thanksgiving table with his presence and fill your loved ones with peace.
All: Amen
May the Lord of salvation guide you all your days until you come into the joys of his eternal kingdom.
All: Amen
And may Almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, bless you now and forever.
All: Amen
(from A Service for the Eve of Thanksgiving written by the Rev. Thomas L. Weitzel)
Here is Rev. Jim’s mid-week update for Wednesday, October 5th
